| “ | Burgundian unique cavalry unit which can charge its attack. | ” |
| —Description | ||
The Coustillier is the first unique unit of the Burgundians in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Lords of the West. It is a medium cavalry unit that "charges" its attack over a period of time, dealing increased damage on its first attack against an enemy unit.
Coustilliers can be upgraded to Elite Coustilliers in the Imperial Age.
Ability[]
Showing one charged attack followed by three regular attacks
The Coustillier can charge its melee attack by +20 (+25 for Elite). The effective charge attack is the result of subtracting the total armor value (including upgrades) of the target unit from the Coustillier's base attack + charge bonus + attack upgrades.
The charge attack does not affect buildings and is not triggered when the Coustillier attacks them.
When trained, Coustilliers have their charge built up at maximum. Upon catching up with the enemy unit (i.e. entering the attack animation), it takes 0.6 seconds for the Coustillier to inflict its first charged blow (marked with a unique attack animation) after which the animation switches to regular, and the Coustillier deals usual damage. It takes 40 seconds for the ability to be recharged for both Elite and non-Elite Coustillier.
Tactics[]
One way to maximize the usefulness of its charge attack is to hit-and-run, and this way, Coustilliers are able to diminish even armies of Halberdiers if the timing of the charge is correct. This quirk makes Coustilliers extremely useful against slow-moving units as well; however, micromanagement is very important. Because of this, the best counters against Coustilliers are Camel Riders and Knights, or by outnumbering them with Halberdiers. Monks are also a good counter, as a lone non-Elite Coustillier will always need at least three attacks to kill a Monk with Sanctity, though two charged attacks will take a Monk out. An Elite Coustillier can kill a Monk in two hits (one charged, one normal), but if a Monk successfully converts a Coustillier, the newly converted unit will attack their fellow cavalry with their charge, potentially ruining the momentum of the attack.
If used for sustained attacks, Coustilliers are inferior to the Knight line, even if the charge attack is taken into account. This is due to its inferior normal attack and rate of fire compared to the Knight-line. Also, Coustilliers have fewer hit points. Factoring in charge attacks in sustained combat, the standard version has +1.19 attack and the Elite version has +1.42 attack. While the Coustillier can rival the Burgundian Cavalier (+5 HP), the Elite Coustillier steeply falls off compared to the Paladin (+15 HP and +1 pierce armor; ability to retain value in sustained combat and against buildings), even before considering the cheap Paladin upgrade. However, Coustilliers have a significant advantage, as their cheap cost will make them easier to mass. Also, they do not have to be upgraded in the Castle Age, while the Cavalier upgrade needs some time to research. Despite being subpar to Burgundian Paladins, they can still defeat Celtic and Byzantine Paladins, and crush all non–Bulgarian Cavaliers. When facing some unique cavalry like Cataphracts and Tarkans, Coustilliers can still beat them, and they even cost less.
At most times, Cavaliers are preferred in the Castle Age, but if the enemy is an archer- or some infantry–based civilization, Coustilliers perform better than Cavaliers, since their charge attack will be deadly for most archers, and to some degree infantry. They cannot strike down Crossbowmen with a single hit if any armor upgrades are researched for the Crossbowmen, but it will be enough to kill them with another common attack. The same goes for the Elite Coustillier against the Arbalester; if the Arbalester has any armor upgrades, the Elite Coustillier's charged attack will leave an Arbalester low enough that another standard attack will finish the job. While they are slower than Cavalry Archers, Coustilliers are still a good option to kill Cavalry Archers, as they have enough pierce armor to resist the arrow from the latter. Also, kiting the Coustilliers will give time for them to reload the charge time, giving a potential threat for Cavalry Archers, which are also fragile to the charge attack.
Probably one of the best uses of the Coustillier is as a raiding unit, since its charge attack enables them to kill Villagers with Loom with three strikes (two as Elites, or with two charged attacks even for non-Elites), so a powerful strategy is to attract attention at another front so the enemy army is busy dealing with a distraction and then attack the back of the opponent settlement with the Coustilliers. The focus should be on the Villagers only, and not the buildings. This way, the player can diminish the opponent's economy very quickly.
Further statistics[]
As Coustilliers are unique to the Burgundians, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Infantry, archers, Villagers, siege weapons, Cavalry Archers, Light Cavalry |
| Weak vs. | Kamayuks, Genoese Crossbowmen, Mamelukes, Camel Riders, Samurai, War Elephants, Boyars, Halberdiers (if massed), Monks (if kept away) |
| Upgrades | |
| Attack |  Forging (+1) Iron Casting (+1) Blast Furnace (+2)
|
| Armor |  Scale Barding Armor (+1/+1) Chain Barding Armor (+1/+1) Plate Barding Armor (+1/+2)
|
| Conversion resistance |  Devotion (+1 min, +1 max) Faith (+4 min, +4 max)
|
| Movement speed |  Husbandry (+10%)
|
| Creation speed |  Conscription (+33%) Kasbah (+25%, with a Berber ally only)
|
| Upgrade |  Elite Coustillier
|
Civilization bonuses[]
Burgundians: Husbandry is 50% cheaper.
Team bonuses[]
- Bulgarians: Blacksmith upgrades are researched 80% faster.
- Huns: Researching Husbandry is 20% faster.
- Lithuanians: Devotion and Faith is researched 20% faster.
- Portuguese: Upgrades that benefit Coustilliers are researched 25% faster.
- Teutons: Coustilliers are more resistant to conversion.
Changelog[]
Lords of the West[]
- Originally, Coustilliers' charge attack dealt 35 damage (40 for Elite) and dealt double damage against units (bug) with the archer armor class. With hotfix 45185, it dealt 25 damage (30 for Elite) and no longer deals double damage against units with the Archer armor class.
Dynasties of India[]
- With update 66692, Coustilliers' charge attack now deals 20 damage (25 for Elite).
History[]
Coustilliers started out in France as low-ranking yet professional infantrymen in a lance fournie of a squire, man-at-arms, or knight. Coustilliers were first mentioned in a 1445 French ordinance. Bretons and Burgundians later also trained their own Coustilliers.
Coustillier derives from coustille, a short sword.
Trivia[]
- The Coustillier is the only unique cavalry unit where both the food cost and gold cost is less than that of the Knight.
- A fully upgraded Elite Coustillier with the charge attack deals 40 damage before armor, higher than any other unit in the game outside of the siege units.
- The charge ability resembles the ones of cavalry units from other RTS games, like the Total War games.
- At release, the Coustillier had higher charge attack and a bug that allowed it to deal double damage against all archer units, so being capable to kill even Cavalry Archers in just one hit (it was intended to kill foot archer units in one hit). It was highly criticized as an unbalanced unit. This was addressed in a hotfix, but even after that, the Coustilier remained as one of the strongest unique units for quick raids and dropping the hit points of ranged units with great results. Such charge attacks were also abused in high-level games because Pikemen lack mobility and suffer higher losses. In update 66692, the charge attack was further reduced.
- The Coustillier is one of the only two unique cavalry units whose civilization do not have Bloodlines, the other is the Byzantine Cataphract.
- Apart from War Elephants, Coustilliers have the highest hit points among non-elite cavalry unique units, and the Elite Coustillier has the third highest base hit points of all unique cavalry. But because the Burgundians lack Bloodlines, they fall behind most of them.
- When charging attack, their attack animation is similar to the Leitis'.
- The in-game Coustillier model wields a voulge, like French coustilliers in general. Burgundian coustilliers generally wielded spears instead.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
